


A Tangled Web We Weave

by muchmoremajestic



Series: Passenger Side, Lighting The Sky [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Background Relationships, Canon Divergence, Endgame Canon Divergence, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Murder, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Character Death, Weapons, avengers endgame canon divergent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-11-04 12:03:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17898095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchmoremajestic/pseuds/muchmoremajestic
Summary: After winning the battle against Thanos and reversing the snap, the world is left shaken, and certain villains are more than happy to take advantage. Now that Steve and Tony are away, what happens to the team they've left behind? With the Avengers already down several members, Peter and Natasha seem to be the only ones taking notice of the impending danger ahead.





	1. Where Were We?

**Author's Note:**

> This story will be occurring mostly concurrently with the events of The Company We Keep the first story in this series that focuses on Steve and Tony after they leave the compound. This first chapter occurs between the end of the battle against Thanos and before Steve and Tony leave.

“Why are you dropping me off here?”

“You don’t think he’s going to want to see you first?” Doctor Strange said, closing the portal behind Peter as he stepped through and onto the grass at the Avengers compound.

Peter turned and there Tony was across the field - in shock at seeing Peter, mouth agape.

Peter did a little wave. “Hey, Mr. Stark.”

Tony looked like he had been through hell (and he probably had). Cuts on his face, eyes red and puffy, and hand bandaged up. For a moment, he stood there staring at Peter like he was a ghost but when Peter took a step forward Tony ran to close the distance between them. Despite the injured hand, he grabbed Peter into a tight hug, which Peter immediately returned. Peter could feel Tony shaking from crying.

“Pete, I’m so sorry.”

“Mr. Stark, it’s okay. I’m here. I’m fine.”

Eventually, Tony took his arm around Peter’s shoulders and guided him toward the medical wing of the compound as the sun began to set. Upon entering the building, the first thing Peter noticed was Captain America sitting on the floor, staring off into the distance while Falcon and Bucky bookended him, talking to him with no response. Peter walked into the medical bay area to see a few others he recognized being attended to. Black Widow was on a table getting a few cuts clean. In the next bay, Ant-Man was getting his ribs taped up. Peter noticed there was a blond woman he didn’t know talking to Rhodey in the corner.

For a victory, the feeling in the air wasn’t that of joy or relief. Something was off.

Tony guided Peter to an empty bay and pulled the curtain slightly closed. “We’re going to have you checked out just in case and then I’m going to call Aunt May. I’ll be back in a few.” Tony appeared really scattered, just all over the place as he turned to leave, getting half tangled in the curtain on his way out.

One of the medical staff came in and examined Peter, but they couldn’t find anything wrong.

Tony eventually returned and handed his already dialed phone to Peter.

Peter heard the call go through.

“Aunt May?”

“Peter? Is that you?”

“Hi, Aunt May. Yeah, it’s me. I’m on Mr. Stark’s phone. I’m okay. I’m upstate at the Avengers Compound. They’re just checking me out now just to be safe.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I feel fine. Are you okay?”

“Panicked since yesterday but yes, I’m okay. Much better now that I hear your voice. Who are you with?”

“Umm. The Avengers are all here, I’m with Mr. Stark right now.”

“Can you put me on speaker?

“Sure.”

“Hey, Tony, can you hear me?”

“Yeah, May,  I can hear you just fine.”

“Peter’s safe up there at the compound with you all, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then I have a favor. As badly as I want to see Peter tonight it’s getting crazy outside right now. People are pretty freaked out - the streets are packed, people are yelling, crying, cheering - it feels like halfway between a parade and a riot about to break out. I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I’d actually feel a bit better knowing Peter was just in a single safe place than traveling tonight. I know it’s a short drive, but honestly, there are tons of people in the streets, it’s starting to get dark out and I would just rather not have Peter travel through that. Is it okay if Peter stays up there with you all tonight?”

“Of course. He’s more than welcome to stay here tonight. I’ll drive him down myself tomorrow once things settle down. Do you need help down there?”

“Thanks, Tony. And no, I’m good. I’m safely locked inside the apartment.”

They both talked with Aunt May for a few more minutes, and once Peter ended the call, Tony gave him a look once over.

“Okay, you seem physically fine. But you’ve gotta be starving. Want something to eat?”

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

Tony next took Peter to the kitchen and started making Peter a sandwich. Peter sat on one of the stools next to the kitchen island.

“Ham and swiss good?”

“Oh yeah, that’s perfect.” Tony reached into the fridge.

“Umm - Mr. Stark?”

“What’s up?”

“Is everything okay? Because it feels like something’s wrong around here and I can’t figure out what it is.”

Tony turned and looked at Peter. “What makes you say that?”

“I would have thought you’d all be cheering, celebrating, if you guys defeated Thanos. That doesn’t seem to be the mood around here. What gives? What happened out there?”

Tony sighed, put down the container of cold cuts and sat on the stool next to Peter.

“We did beat Thanos. It was incredibly hard, but we did it. It took five years -”

“ _Five years -”_

“Yes, five years of searching for Thanos and building weapons and making a plan. And we reset time, yes, it’s still April 2018 - and we are so glad to have all of you back -

“But?”

Tony recoiled slightly like he didn’t want to keep talking.

“Not - not everyone made it back. We lost Thor, and the Hulk and Clint, who you met in Germany. They were all killed, during the battle.” Tony looked away from Peter and down at his hands.

Peter felt a weight form in the pit of his stomach. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Stark.”

“Thanks. It - honestly it hasn’t registered yet. Like I saw it happen, I know it happened. But still - I’m - I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be dumping all of this on you-”

“No, no it’s okay. I want to know what happened to you all.”

Tony sighed. “Okay, listen, today has been - just a lot. I do want to talk to you in depth about everything that happened but I might need a couple of days. I have a feeling things are about to get incredibly crazy around here because if the whole world’s freaking out then a lot of high level people are going to have a lot of questions. Is it okay if we put a pin in this for now?”

“Absolutely, Mr. Stark.” Peter had a million questions, but Tony seemed like he was still in shock over the whole situation, and Peter wasn’t about to push the issue and make him feel worse.

“Okay. Thank you for understanding.” Tony got back up and finished making the sandwich.

“Alright. You want anything else?”

“No, the sandwich will be perfect. And if you have like an open couch or something, I’m good anywhere for tonight.”

“Nonsense. We have a room for you already. Just need to handle one thing first.”

Tony guided Peter out of the kitchen, sandwich in tow and toward the administrative office suites. They walked into one office, with a computer, a printer and a camera with a screen backdrop against one wall with a chair.

“Sit there. We have to take your picture.”

“For . . .”

“For your ID. Your Avengers ID.’

“Wait, what?”

“I made you an official member of the team. That was legitimate. Besides, you need this to get around the building anyway. Now, look at the camera.” Tony took the picture, entered information into the computer and printed the ID, handing it to Peter.

After leaving the offices, they returned to the residential wing of the compound. The building looked a little different since Peter was here last like some renovations had been done.

Peter and Tony walked down a long hallway of doors, a few of them open. In the open rooms, bots were bringing in storage boxes. Another room was in the process of being set up. They kept walking past the open doors, and toward the end of the hallway Tony stopped and turned to Peter.

“Use your ID so we can make sure it works,” Tony said, pointing to a black scanner on the door.

Peter tapped his ID and the door clicked. Peter pushed it open, expecting a plain, empty guest room.

But the room was far from empty.

The room had already been mostly decorated, but there was no confusing it for anyone else’s room but Peter’s. The room was big - most likely bigger than his bedroom back home. A bed sat in one corner with a small nightstand. A framed map of Queens, photos of New York and a pennant from the Mets and Midtown High were on the wall, along with a framed front page newspaper article that covered Spiderman’s capture of the Vulture and the crash on Rockaway Beach. A small bookshelf was filled with science fiction novels, a few science and tech journals and magazines, and some other books. A bag of tools sat next to a box filled with old electronics for Peter to tinker with. A TV sat on a small stand in the corner which also had a few Lego kits and board games across from a big bean bag chair. A nice desk sat in the corner of the room with a laptop and a small gift basket on it and another, smaller bean bag chair tucked against the desk and the wall out of the way. There was a door to a personal bathroom next to the desk and the closet, which had a few pieces of clothing already hanging in it.

Peter was in shock.

“How did you do all of this? You didn’t even make me an Avenger until we were on the ship.”

“Was going to surprise you later this summer with this. Make you an offer to spend a little time training up here and working on new tech for your suit before everything went to shit, even if you didn’t want an official spot on the team. You should still be developing skills, you know?”

Peter continued to look around the room. Tony pointed to the closet.

“There are some changes of clothes - plain t-shirts, jogging pants and stuff in the closet so you can change out of your suit. There’s a bag in there, leave the suit in there and we’ll have it cleaned tonight and do any maintenance needed. Towels and new toiletries in the bathroom. The thermostat is next to the door, but you can also just ask FRIDAY to adjust the temp in here if you need to.”

“Thank you again, so much. Can I ask - what are the other rooms in this hall?

“Well Rhodey and I have rooms upstairs but the other rooms in this hallway are for the other Avengers. Since everyone was away I renovated all the bedrooms.  Those bots are moving Steve, Nat, Wanda and Sam’s belongings out of storage again. Also setting up a room for Barnes. But this room was the first one finished.”

Peter was still in disbelief.

Tony continued speaking. “And listen, you can come by as often or as little as you want to. Don’t feel obligated to be here if you want to stay home or think you have to come out on any missions. Just figured it’d be nice to give you a place to train, test out new equipment or even a place to study or if you just want away from Queens for a day or two. Whether I’m here or not you’re more than welcome to stay. I meant what I said when I made you a part of the team. But please, feel free to keep being that friendly neighborhood Spiderman in Queens. Just know you’ve got lots of resources up here too.”

“I - I - thank you so much, Mr. Stark, this is awesome.”

“Usually at this point, I’d tell you to freshen up so we could go spend some time with the rest of the crew, but, well, you saw. How are you feeling?”

“A little tired, I think.”

“Okay. You can hang out here or wander around if you’d like. I’m going to go check on the others. Come find me if you need me. FRIDAY will tell you where I am.”

Tony left Peter alone in the room, shutting the door on his way out. As tempting as it was to explore the compound on his own, the stress and events of the past two days began to catch up with him, so he decided to stay in the room and relax. Peter quickly showered and changed, and then ate the sandwich while watching the news. Aunt May was right - people were out, everywhere, in the streets. Trying to figure out what had happened, if there was more danger ahead.

He turned off the TV and checked out the gift basket on the desk.

Peter unwrapped it. Inside was an ID holder, a few bags of candy, a coffee mug, a map and guide to the compound, a hoodie, and a small note in Tony’s handwriting.

_Welcome to the team, kid._

Peter smiled, pinning the card to the corkboard above the desk and prepared for bed.

The next day, Tony dropped Peter off at home. Drove himself, with Peter tucked in the front seat. Tony insisted on door-to-door delivery.

They chatted a little on the ride down. Tony asked Peter about school and his friends.

It was two days ago, technically, that Peter left home to go to school for a class trip to the MOMA before being taken off into outer space. But the reality was that years had passed - and then didn’t - while he was dust and the Avengers did what was necessary to bring everyone back.

But what Tony said - five years - kept sticking in the back of Peter’s mind.

Tony parked the car and ran around opening the door to Peter’s side. Peter climbed out of the car and said, “Oh, Mr. Stark I could have gotten the do-“

Tony pulled Peter into a hug, cutting him off. Peter hugged him back. They separated and Peter grabbed his belongings from the car. Tony guided him to the building.

Peter slung his bag over one shoulder, fumbled with his keys and walked into the building. Into the elevator, up to his floor, Tony right behind him. Down the hallway, twenty steps to his front door, as always.

He had his keys but it didn’t feel right to just enter the apartment after all this time. He knocked instead. _Knock knock._

The door swung open and there stood Aunt May - eyes red with tears, and an overjoyed expression on her face.

“Aunt May -“

Before he could finish his sentence May sprung forward wrapping Peter in the tightest hug he’d ever had. Peter let his backpack slip off his shoulder as he returned the hug.

May walked over to Tony, embraced him as well, and simply said, “Thank you.”

Tony looked at Peter. “The next few weeks are probably going to be very weird and rough on everyone. I want updates on how you’re doing. Not just Spiderman things, although I do want to know how the new suit is treating you. I’m serious. Whatever I can do for you - for either of you - please let me know. I'll call in a couple days and we can continue our chat but if you need to talk before that just let me know. Okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Alright. May, he’s all yours. Take care.”

“You too.”

“Bye, Mr. Stark.”

Tony turned down the hallway, waved and entered the elevator, out of sight. Peter looked back at May, who had tears in her eyes. Smiling, she guided Peter back into the apartment.

* * *

 

People remembered. Despite the snap being undone and waking up the next day as if everything was to go back to being normal but people remembered what had happened. Those who were erased in the snap remembered turning to dust. Those who survived remembered the years spent mourning and trying to make sense of the catastrophic loss. Years now overwritten by time, but too painful to ever forget.

Natasha wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse. She thought of how bleak the world became in the aftermath of the snap and how traumatizing it must be for everyone who didn’t get the personal satisfaction of seeing Thanos’ death to make sense of it all to carry painful memories from a reality that no longer existed. But maybe, just maybe, it would be a wake-up call to the world. That having lost half the world would make people more appreciative of what they had, be kinder to each other. She could only hope.

So at first when the day of the snap came and went and people remembered what should have happened to everyone, there was panic. Understandable. People wondering if those memories were real, what happened and if it could happen again. There were tons of questions and, unfortunately for the Avengers, they were the only ones who had any answers.

The next few days were a blur; questioning by the US government and then more questions from dozens of other countries. Tony’s press conference detailing the snap, the battle, and what the Avengers had sacrificed to bring everyone back, breaking the news that Thor, Clint, and Bruce had been killed during the battle. Listening to Tony and Rhodey scream at Secretary Ross who had tried to have her and Steve and the others arrested again just to have pardons delivered from the German government and the UN subcommittee who oversaw the Accords as a gesture of gratitude for saving everyone.

The first week was spent bouncing between questioning and memorials and celebrations. Yes, she had shed some tears, but she was mainly exhausted; exhausted from running, exhausted from the search for Thanos, exhausted from the battle and exhausted from going through the motions. Even when she slept, she would wake up feeling just as exhausted as when she went to bed.

Natasha didn’t know how Tony had the energy for all of this.

Steve, on the other hand, was notably absent from most of these public appearances, choosing to only show up for the more somber memorials. The rest of the time, Steve spent locked in his room.

Natasha didn’t know what to do about Steve. It was hard enough to keep his spirits up when they were preparing to fight Thanos again when there was still hope that everyone could come back alive. Now that there were confirmed, certified losses, she knew he was going to take it hard. But since the battle, she could count the number of times she’d seen him outside of his room on one hand; an impressively small amount given that her new room was across the hallway from his.

Natasha walked to the kitchen where Tony and Bucky were quietly chopping vegetables to prepare for dinner. Natasha was convinced nothing could surprise her anymore, but seeing the two pass onions and peppers back and forth was still a sight she would have never thought she’d see.

Bucky was put in the room next to Steve’s, given space at the compound at Tony’s insistence. Partially, it was a way to guarantee they’d all be protected from Ross if they were all in one place. But after the battle, Natasha had watched as Tony approached a hesitant Bucky, a hand outstretched, saying “No more fighting, no more bullshit. You’re welcome to stay here.”

Natasha knew this was Tony’s way of coping - masking sadness with busy work on autopilot and doing what he could to take care of everyone else around him as to avoid dealing with his own feelings. While Tony was trying to avoid his feelings by being on the go non-stop, Steve had seemed to come to a grinding, paralyzing halt, completely withdrawing from the rest of the team.

“Has he eaten today?” she asked as she approached the island.

“That would require him to step outside of his room to where the food is, so no, probably not,” said Bucky, not looking up from the peppers he was slicing.

After dinner was over, Natasha prepared a tray a brought it to Steve’s room. She knocked at the door.

“Steve, it’s me. I brought you some food.”

No answer.

She knocked again. “Come on, Steve, you have to eat something.”

No answer.

She knocked harder. “Steve, you know I’m not leaving until you open this door. I built a career interrogating people. That’s a lot of patience and even more stubbornness and I WILL be knocking at your door all night until the wood wears out. Don’t test me, Ste-”

She heard a click and the door opened. Steve’s face poked out between the door and the frame, the room dark behind him. His eyes were red - it was clear he had been crying - but he didn’t say anything. She pushed past him into the room (with no complaint from Steve), turned on the light on the desk and placed the tray of food on his desk. A brief glimpse around the room revealed clothes and books strewn about and crumbled pieces of paper around the floor by where Steve kept his art supplies. This was the kind of mess Nat had seen in Clint’s room or even Tony’s lab, but it felt unnatural for Steve’s room to look like this.

Natasha didn’t say anything, but instead turned and pulled Steve into a hug. He returned the hug silently. She realized after everything that he was the best friend she had left in this world, and she hated seeing him suffer so much. She promised herself she would take extra care to keep an eye on him over the next few weeks.

Even for the few minutes that she had been in the room, the clutter had begun to feel oppressive. It couldn’t have been helping Steve’s mental state to be in the room looking like this. Steve sat down at the desk to begin to eat and Nat wandered around between the room and the bathroom, moving small things and quietly helping tidy up so his space didn’t have to be in such disarray.

When she stopped, she turned and saw that Steve had actually cleaned the entire plate and was sitting up on his bed leaning against a couple of pillows and holding another in his arms, taking a brief look around the room. She walked over to him and climbed into bed sitting next to him.

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

She put her arm over his and leaned on his shoulder and felt him lean his head on hers. She sat with him for a long time, letting her mind wander over the events of the past week (and the now missing five years) and felt her eyes tear up.

* * *

 

Perched atop a long sloping hill stood an oddly shaped white building that stood out against the night sky. The winding path down to the road blocked off by a fence was quiet; the usual sound of footsteps of guards on patrol replaced with silence. A figure stepped over the body of the last guard standing and pulled his sword out of the guard’s chest.

 _It better be here,_ the man thought.

He walked around the back of the building, cutting the power to the security system. With a ring of keys taken off a dead guard’s body, the intruder slowly crept into the building, careful to listen for any remaining personnel.

Finding the building empty so far, the man wandered past administrative offices to the laboratory in the center of the building.

The walls were lined with crates of vials filled with various chemical mixtures capable of all kinds of potential mayhem. He contemplated the possibilities of how much he could profit off stealing more of the vials. But he was here for one thing only.

A locked crate sat at the back of the room. He took his sword and pried the box open. A soft purple glow emitted from the box.

 _Perfect_ , the man thought.

The plan was in motion.


	2. All This Lost Time

Peter was honest and told May everything he did after the ship arrived in New York. How he left the school bus, stopped Tony from getting crushed, chased after Doctor Strange and got himself abducted into space. He shared how Tony had given him a new suit, and a way back home, but that he snuck onto the ship and went off into space anyway.

He could see a slightly angry and hurt expression on her face at that.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

He knew she was generally supportive of his Spiderman activities; partially because she genuinely believed in him, that he could make a big difference, but partially because she knew she wasn’t going to be able to stop him. Better to be supportive and upfront so that he not continue to hide it. But doing reckless things like continuing onto the ship, as good as his intentions were, hurt May regardless. Peter realized this immediately.

“It was random. Who disappeared. Even if I hadn’t been in space it would have just happened on the school bus, or worse, in front of you.”

That was the detail he was hanging onto, what helped clear his conscious a bit; that at least, by choosing to go on the ship and go to Titan, May didn’t have to see him turn to dust. He saw how devastated Tony had looked as it was happening; he couldn’t begin to imagine inflicting that kind of pain on Aunt May.

May hugged him tightly.

May didn’t want to get into too many details about what she did during the five years without Peter - with the exception of one major point.

A few days later, Peter and May were going over to Ned’s for dinner. Ned’s parents, who had both been taken in the snap, would never be able to repay May for what she did while they were gone - taking in Ned, who had also survived, after calling searching for Peter just to hear a frantic Ned say he just saw both of his parents turn to dust. But the dinner was a start.

School had been canceled for the week, as everything was still a bit chaotic, so the dinner was the first time Peter had gotten to see Ned.

They sat in Ned’s room after the meal.

“So you survived -”

“Yeah.”

“No one seems to want to talk about what it was like. Surviving, I mean.”

Ned was quiet at first. “Peter, it was _awful._ Cars and planes crashing, people screaming in the streets. I was home, it was after school. I saw both my parents go. No one knew what to do. I don’t know how to describe it. People had hard times finding food and other resources. Society basically collapsed, dude.” He looked upset.

Peter put his hand on Ned’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. We’re safe now.”

“So what happened to you after you left the school bus?”

“Swung over to lower Manhattan and stopped Mr. Stark from getting crushed by this big alien with a giant hammer thing. Chased after this other guy, Doctor Strange, you’d like him, he can do magic - anyway, he was being abducted so I chased after the alien taking him. Got hit by a billboard, then beamed up toward the ship -”

Ned had looked confused this entire time but upon hearing Peter’s last comment shot up to attention. “ _Beamed up?!”_

“Yeah. Then Mr. Stark gave me my new suit as I was falling back down to Earth - I gotta show you when you come over it’s super cool - and then I snuck back aboard the ship, we knocked the bad guy out of the ship and into space -”

“Like in _Alien_?”

“Of course.”

“Oh my god. Continue.”

“And then we met this team, they called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, they were kind of weird, but we realized we were all looking for Thanos. Mr. Stark said it’d be better to go Thanos’ home instead so we went there - ”

“WHAT -”

“And we ended up fighting him on his home planet and we almost got the gauntlet with the stones that were giving him powers off his hand, but well, you know the rest.”

“Okay, Peter. Let me get this straight. So you met a wizard, got abducted by aliens, flew a spaceship and went to another planet and fought in outer space?”

“Crashed a spaceship but yeah, basically.”

“That’s so COOL, Peter.”

“I literally died, Ned.”

There was a pause of silence between them and then they both started laughing.

“Do you wanna play some games?” Ned asked.

“Sure.”

Peter spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Ned, playing video games and watching videos on YouTube, more than glad to have just a normal evening with his best friend.

The following day, Peter received a text from Tony.

> _Wanna grab dinner tomorrow? I’ll be in town addressing the UN all day but once that’s over I’m free_

< _Yeah, sure_

The restaurant was a nice but still casual place that opened up onto a park.

“So how’s it going?”

“Okay. We’ve been off school this week. I’ve been spending time with Aunt May and Ned.”

“Haven’t heard from you about patrols. How are those going?”

“Well, I, uh, haven’t been going on patrol this week.”

Tony looked concerned. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah - I think,” Peter paused and lowered his voice slightly, “I think I just feel bad. For just going off into space. I told Aunt May what happened and when I mentioned that you gave me a way to get home and I didn’t take it she just looked so - ”

“ - hurt?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s okay to feel bad. Doing this means you sometimes put yourself in a dangerous position, even if that means people who care about you wish you wouldn’t. And we don’t always get the time to really think about what we have to do or explain our thinking before we have to act.”

They both sat in silence for a moment. Tony continued to speak.

“You know, you’ve also been through a lot. There’s no harm in taking some time to yourself and spending time with loved ones instead of going on patrols.”

"Thanks.”

“By the way, the funeral is next week. There have been a lot of memorials but the official funeral is going to be on Sunday. It’s closed to the public - we would be overrun - but as a member of the team, you’re invited.” Tony reached into his jacket and passed Peter a card. “Again, don’t feel like you’re forced to go, I know funerals can be pretty heavy and emotional. I wish I had a better “first team outing” for you, but the invite is there if you want it.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark. I definitely want to go.”

“Okay. We’ll arrange some transportation. Want to stay the whole weekend? Might be a lot easier to get you there Friday afternoon than Sunday morning.”

“Yeah, sure. That sounds great.”

On Friday morning, Peter was in the middle of packing when Aunt May knocked at his bedroom door.

“Come in.”

“Pete, I have to run to work and you’ll probably be gone by the time I get back so here.” She handed him two pies from the bakery near the subway station.

“What’s this?”

“You’re going to be seeing a lot of people in mourning. You have to bring some kind of food. Top one’s blueberry, the bottom is apple.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.”

“Who’s picking you up?”

“I think Happy is.”

“Aww, it’s too bad I’ll miss him.” She kissed Peter on the forehead and turned out of the room.

“What?” Peter said to himself.

When Peter got to the compound, he was glad May had sent him with something because he would have felt incredibly awkward showing up empty-handed. From the second the doors opened to the main building, Peter could smell an incredible array of foods and flowers that had been sent to the Avengers. Items from countries all around the world filled the entrance hall and Peter saw staff surveying what was already laid out and moving more delivery boxes into another room.  Even coming from Queens, statistically one of the most diverse places in the world, Peter had never seen so many kinds of foods in one place. There were already lots of strangers hanging around the tables chatting.

Happy stood beside Peter. “Hope you got an appetite, kid. No need to cook -”

“Ever again? Where did all of this come from?”

“Politicians, ambassadors, organizations, random people. From all over. You name it, someone probably sent it. It’s very sweet when you think about it.”

“How many Avengers do they think actually live here?”

“Don’t worry. It’ll go. There’s going to be people coming in and out from around the world all weekend. Go grab something to eat. I’ll tell Tony you’re here. Your stuff is being brought to your room.”

Peter looked around and grabbed a plate of food and turned to go toward the residential wing. While walking, he passed Rhodey and Bucky, the former giving him a wave hello and turning his attention back to the other man.

“You really think Steve’s going to eat all of that?” Peter heard Rhodey say.

Bucky was grabbing an assortment of food and putting it in a medium sized box. “Even if I have to kick the door down and shove it down his throat, yes, he will eat it.”

Peter continued to bob and weave through the crowd. He got some stares - understandably so, as he was by far the youngest person there - but eventually made it through the hall and to the residential wing.

Once Peter made it to his room, he was actually relieved to be away from all of the chaos outside. His bags had already been dropped off in his room, and his suit for the funeral already hung in the closet, so he ate, turned on the tv, unpacked and got settled in.

While he was only staying for the weekend, Peter brought several more changes of clothes to keep at the compound. No one told him to do it, and when he was packing he didn't intentionally do it. He had just started grabbing extra clothes he wouldn't miss if they weren't back home. He also grabbed a couple of pictures, of him and May and of his friends.

While he set up his room the early evening news was playing in the background. The first few stories were about how the governor was planning a statewide celebration, how local communities were still responding to everyone returning and how sports teams were resuming play after a couple of weeks hiatus. Peter had it on as background noise, too lazy to find anything else to watch. But the next news story started to grab his attention.

“ _In other news around the state, federal agents have taken over the investigation of grizzly multiple homicides outside a chemical lab that occurred earlier this week. Little information has been released about the attack, which resulted in the deaths of all ten security guards on duty. A spokesperson from the local police said the laboratory was not cooperating with - ”_

A shout and a loud bang down the hallway snapped Peter’s attention away from the TV. He peeked his head out of his door down the hall to see Bucky banging on Steve’s door with his metal arm and yelling in an exasperated voice.

“Steve, dammit, I know you’re in there. This is getting fucking ridiculous. You can’t stay in your room forever. Open the damn door, I brought you food.”

Peter went back into his room. The TV was now playing some car commercial. Peter turned it off and finished unpacking and tidying up his room.

Getting a little antsy from being in the room for so long, Peter thought of other things he could do. This time around, Peter was going to take the opportunity to explore the compound. He took the guidebook from the gift basket and put it in his pocket along with his phone. He attached the ID holder to a loop on his shorts and left the room.

He first wandered around the rest of the residential wing. He noted the other doors - each with its occupant’s name on a placard next to the door. The room across the hall from him was empty, but the other three rooms belonged to Vision, Wanda, and Natasha. On his side of the hall, Peter was in the far end, next to Sam, then Bucky, then Steve.

A small staircase off next to Peter’s room led upstairs to the suites Tony and Rhodey had. A gym was on the same floor as Peter’s room, as well as a library. Upstairs and down the hall from Tony’s suit was the common area, which had a large living room, dining area, and large kitchen. There was a conference room off the living area.

Signs next to the conference room guided Peter down out of the residential wing and to the training center, which had more fitness equipment, a boxing ring, a simulation training room, and a pool. The medical wing Peter had been to his prior visit was nearby, as well as a path to the garage and hangar. Turning around and returning to the main building, Peter walked past the administrative suite where he got his ID, a media center and reception area, and finally, the place Peter had really wanted to see: the lab.

He raised his ID, curious if he had access, and was a bit surprised when the red light on the card reader turned green and the doors slid open. Peter stepped inside and was amazed at what he saw; a wide variety of scientific tools and machines were spread out across the lab. Peter walked past many tables with different experiments set up. He was the only one in the lab, or at least he thought, so he was caught off guard when an Irish woman’s voice rang out.

“Good evening, Peter.”

“Hello? Who’s that?” Peter spun around the room looking for the source of the voice.

“I was instructed to talk to you once you entered the lab, Peter.”

“Are you FRIDAY?”

“Yes.”

“Hi, I’m Peter.”

“There’s something for you in the back right corner.”

Peter followed FRIDAY’s directions, to the back corner of the lab, where a decent sized station was set up.

“That’s your workstation, Peter.”

“Did you - did you say _my_ workstation?”

“Yes. For you to use as you see fit. To work on recipes for web fluid, new tech, building whatever you want. There’s a chemical supply closet in that door to your right, and additional supplies in the cabinets at the front of the lab. Safety equipment including extra goggles, gloves, and lab coats can be found behind the red door to your left. Do you need me to run through lab safety protocol?”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about that. I get enough of that at school. Wear safety equipment and don’t ingest anything. That’s like half the battle right there, right?”

“Fine. I’m instructed to watch while you’re in here anyway and alert someone if you’re about to blow something up.”

“That’s fair.”

“And don’t catch fire. Dum-E loves an excuse to use the fire extinguisher. Don’t enable him.”

Peter heard some beeps behind him and turned to see a black robot with an extending arm from its base that had grippers on its end. The robot turned at the sound of its name and gave out some beeps and opened and shut the grippers repeatedly.

“Hi,” Peter said with a small wave.

Peter heard the beep of the card reader and the sound of the doors opening.

“Pete, you in here?” Tony said from the opposite end of the lab.

“Yeah, Mr. Stark, back here!” Peter shouted.

Tony walked over to Peter’s station.

“You like it?”

“Mr. Stark, are you kidding me? I love it. People at my school would kill to get a set up like this, thank you so much.”

“Of course.”

Deep down, Peter had a feeling Tony was doing all of this as a way to make it up to Peter for everything that had happened as if he had something to be guilty about even though he didn’t. The look on Tony’s face hinted at that too, like he wanted to say more but couldn’t find the right words.

Peter decided to make things a bit easier. “Mr. Stark, once school is over next month, I’d love to spend some time here in the lab working on my suit and learning more about robotics and tech from you.”

Tony’s face lit up. “That’d be great, Pete.”

* * *

 

It was still pretty hectic around the compound. More questioning. More interviews.

With every passing day, the public began to feel a bit more at ease; it was becoming more and more clear that the world was saved, that people weren’t about to start vanishing again.

And with the acceptance that the danger was over, the world moved on to the next stage: gratitude. Globally, celebrations were being held to thank the Avengers.

And then, of course, the funeral.

Tony had asked earlier that week if any of them wanted to speak. He was already planning on it, and Rhodey agreed to speak as well.

The front row was reserved for the team and any family members. Natasha sat between Rhodey and Steve. She held Steve’s hand and he squeezed it throughout the entire service.

A reception of sorts was held afterward at the main hall of the compound. It wasn’t going to be possible to have all of these dignitaries and politicians and so-called “important people” here in one place and expect them to immediately leave. Natasha watched as Steve quietly walked alone back toward the residential wing.

She tried to follow before getting swept up in a line of people waiting to express their condolences. One after another, it wouldn’t stop. Talking to person after person, having the same conversation, the continuous reminder of why they were all there started to feel suffocating. After what felt like forever, she finally was able to escape the crowd and headed back to her room, slamming the door shut and locking it behind her. Overwhelmed, she took a few deep breaths, sank to the floor and started crying.

All of the stress, the public appearances, having to keep on a brave face for the past two weeks - all just a front that she couldn’t keep up anymore. She was exhausted, she missed her friends and she was heartbroken that they were gone.

She laid down on her bed and cried until she fell asleep. She woke up several hours later to a knock on her door. She slowly got up and opened it to see Tony, with two plates of food and bottles of water.

“Got a minute?” He held up the food in his hand.

She held the door open and let him in.

“You missed dinner. Figured I’d check in.” He passed a plate and one of the waters to her as she sat on her bed. He took a seat at her desk.

“Thanks.” They both started eating.

“Tony, I don’t know how you’re doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“The literal _everything_ \- taking the lead on the questioning, the interviews, arranging the funeral today. How do you even have it in you?”

“Someone has to. It keeps me distracted. And if it helps protect all of you, save you from a little pain, I’ll do it.”

“Have you even taken some time for yourself?”

“Been too busy, but I was thinking of maybe spending some time in the city, or maybe heading out to LA just for a couple of weeks once things settled down. Although, I’ll admit - being occupied dealing with the public and the questioning means I haven’t spent as much time as I’d like paying attention to what’s happening here. How is everyone?”

“Rhodey seems to be doing alright, but he’s always been strong. The others - it’s harder, they weren’t there, they didn’t watch it all happen. I’m just going through the motions, I guess.”

“And him?” Tony asked, pointing over his shoulder in the direction of Steve’s room.

“I’m worried about him. He barely leaves his room, doesn’t eat unless one of us brings food to his door and watches him eat it. When he’s out of his room, he’s not really talking to anyone. Just boxing in the training center or sitting by himself outside. He’s crushed, Tony.”

Tony sighed. “Okay. I’ll keep an eye on him too. If you see something wrong, just let me know.”

“Thanks. I will.”

“I know you just said you’re just ‘going through the motions’, but do you wanna talk about it more?” Tony asked as he finished his food.

“Not right now, I think I really just need to rest. The past few weeks have been pretty exhausting.”

“Agreed. Okay, well if you do wanna talk about what’s happened, or anything, just let me know.”

“Okay. Same goes for you too. I know you wanna look out for us, but we’ve got your back too.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. I’m gonna leave you to it, I’ll be in the library if you need me.” He gathered the plates and walked to the door.

“Okay. Night, Tony.”

“Night, Nat.”

Natasha felt a bit better once all of the guests left the compound. It felt like she could breathe a bit easier. Over the week, she wondered if everyone felt that way; it certainly seemed so, because they weren’t spending time together either like everyone needed some space. It was odd, that she almost felt lonely even though she lived on the same floor as her friends.

Nat made sure to take some time to herself; one day she drove down to the city to have a spa day for herself. Another she spent jogging through the nature trail in the state park near the compound where she spent a few hours lounging by the lake. The next day, she spent down at the firing range, letting off a little steam and practicing her aim.

But she still missed the company of her friends. Maybe it was two years straight of always being with Steve, Sam and sometimes Wanda - but as much as she needed the alone time, it got boring quickly.

Four days after the funeral, she was actually surprised to walk into the living room area and see Steve on a lounge chair in the corner reading a book. It was a shock to see him out of his room and just relaxing. She wanted to talk to him so badly, to pick his brain and see how he was feeling and how he was handling everything. But she also didn’t want to overwhelm him - or worse, scare him off back to his room with her questions. So she held herself back and just gave a wave, a smile, and a small “hi”, which he returned. Not knowing what to do with herself, she walked through the living area and back toward the bedrooms.

The next day, she spotted Steve jogging around the edge of the compound like he used to do. It was a relief, to see him doing things that weren’t just sulking around. Later that afternoon, she saw him on the balcony working on something in one of his sketchbooks. Sam walked up to her while she was staring at Steve.

“Nice to see him out of his dungeon, right?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s still been pretty quiet. Bucky and I tried having a conversation with him earlier - just small talk - but he still wasn’t really engaging with us.”

“Small steps. Give him some more time.”

The next day, Natasha was taking a stroll around the main hall and she felt a twinge in her gut. Something was wrong - so she took a walk around the compound to see if she could figure it out. The lab resulted in nothing, and the administrative suites were clear, but during the walk down by the bedrooms she saw Steve’s door, wide open for once, and heard sounds of shuffling and objects being thrown. One shoe bounced out of the room. She walked to Steve’s door to see Steve frantically grabbing clothes and trying to stuff them in a large duffle bag.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Gotta get out of here.”

“And go where?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, just have to leave.”

“Steve, what the hell, you can’t just run away - ” She took a step toward him, but he still had his back to her.

“Please, I’m sorry Nat. I feel like if I stay here any longer I’m going to suffocate. I can’t be here, it hurts too much, I -” she heard him gasp for air. His whole body was trembling.

 _He must be having a panic attack_ , she thought. Steve turned to her. She made eye contact with him hoping to find a way to get through to Steve, her teammate, and her friend, to let him know everything was going to be okay.

But instead, Steve grabbed his bag and pushed past her, heading toward the exit. She followed him out of the room but instead ran toward the common area looking for help.

The only person in the living room was Tony, who was reading a magazine. He looked up as she ran into the room. He noticed the panic on her face and immediately understood something was wrong.

“Nat, what’s going on?”

“Steve - Steve’s trying to leave - he packed a bag and he was upset and shaking and I don’t know what happened but he freaked me out how panicked he was Tony we have to stop him.”

“FRIDAY, where is Steve right now?” Tony asked.

“Captain Rogers is in the garage.”

“I’ll take care of it, Nat.” Tony ran off.

Nat continued to look for the others but had to run down to the training center to find Sam and Bucky.

“GUYS. Up here. Now. Steve needs help.”

By the time Nat ran outside, she only saw the gate to the compound finish closing, with no Steve or Tony in sight.

She, Sam and Bucky returned to the living area where Rhodey was waiting for them.

“FRIDAY, do you have surveillance footage of the garage?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“Can you play back the last ten minutes or so?”

A window opened on the display. Steve walked into frame, pulling the tarp off his motorcycle. He inspected the bike for a few minutes, and once satisfied loaded his duffle bag onto the back of the motorcycle. As he slowly began to roll out, Tony also stepped into frame - also carrying a duffle bag and a motorcycle helmet. The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Tony hopped on the back of Steve’s motorcycle and the two took off.

Natasha was stunned.

“So they left together,” Sam said.

“That’s good then,” Rhodey replied.

“How is that good?” Sam asked.

“Steve is safe as long as he’s with Tony,” Rhodey said.

“We should go after him,” Sam insisted.

“Sam, the absolute last thing we should do is go after him like a giant posse.”

“Just give Steve some space. It’s been an incredibly difficult few weeks since the battle. He’s safe with Tony, just let him do what he needs to do and get this out of his system,” Bucky said.

Sam turned to him. “Seriously?”

Bucky replied, “Tony’s been busting his ass trying to keep everything together around here. He’s not going to let anything happen to Steve.”

“At most, they’ll be gone a couple of days. Hell, I’d even bet they’ll be back tomorrow. Just let Steve calm down,” Rhodey added.

Sam turned to Natasha. “Do you have any thoughts on this?”

Nat didn’t answer Sam and looked at the screen.

“FRIDAY, do you know what happened that set Steve off? Like what made him leave?”

“Captain Rogers didn’t tell me anything, but this was what happened prior to him taking off.”

Footage from the kitchen appeared on the screen. Steve was pouring a cup of coffee and reaching for the sugar on the counter when he picked up another object, studied it for a moment, put the coffee down and turned around and left. Nat walked into the kitchen to look for what Steve had picked up. She saw his coffee, still giving off a little steam, sitting in the sink. She looked for the sugar container and in front of it saw a pair of wire-framed glasses - Bruce’s old pair. Steve must have found them and gotten upset and left.

“Oh, Steve,” Nat said to herself, and she held the glasses in her hands.

* * *

 

The night shift at a factory near the line between Brooklyn and Queens was coming to an end. Two workers lined up the remaining pallets to be shipped out, each pallet carrying a dozen boxes of aerosol sprays, to be delivered to a home goods company to create air fresheners and cleaning supplies.

A worker secured the last pallet, and closed the back of the truck, signaling to the driver that the shipment was secured and ready to go. He waited to hear the beep of the horn from the driver that he understood the truck was packed. But there was no horn. Confused, the worker slowly approached the front of the truck and called out for the driver.

No answer.

He approached the driver and opened the door to see the driver slumped over in his seat, a bullet wound in his chest from the passenger side window.

He turned around to yell to his co-worker but saw the man sinking to the ground in a pool of blood, an arrow directly in the man’s heart.

The worker turned around in terror, not getting a chance to scream or take in the tall masked hooded figure that had snuck up behind him before the attacker raised a club and brought it down over the worker’s head. The last things the worker ever saw was the attacker tossing the driver out of the driver’s seat and to the ground below, driving off with the truck into the night.


	3. A Time For Fun And Games

Peter woke up to another text from Tony.

> _Just wanted to let you know - I’m going on the road with Steve for a bit so I won’t be at the compound. You’re still free to go there if you want._

< _ok. Everything alright?_

> _Not sure yet. Gotta look out for Steve._

Peter was a little worried, and he hoped everything was okay. At least with school still going on for another few weeks, he didn’t have plans to go to the compound anyway.

Peter’s first week back at school was a blur. The school brought in counselors, but they struggled to have productive discussions with the students. Having half the students survive and half come back from the dead was trying to address two entirely new but different kinds of trauma at once.

And it was also an entirely different story to be a part of the event that caused that trauma in the first place. Most of Peter’s classmates had similar stories - they were at home after school, babysitting siblings, doing homework, hanging out with friends or at an internship or afterschool activity when the world started falling apart.

None of them could understand what it was like to step on another planet, to see the being responsible for such carnage in person and know you almost stopped him. That you actually got a few punches and kicks in before going down. That he had the chance to fight Thanos was a point of pride for Peter.

Peter wondered if he should be more upset about what happened. That there must be something wrong with him if he only felt guilty over hurting Aunt May with his choice to continue on into space, and not bad about anything else.

Maybe it was the vindication in having faith that Tony would make things better and knowing that that faith was well placed.

Or maybe he was getting a little too comfortable, and by extension a little more reckless.

Peter tapped his foot on the ground, impatiently waiting for the bell to ring so he could take off. The second the bell rang, Peter was sprinting out of the classroom and toward the door.

Three weeks without patrolling had been long enough for Peter. He started feeling the itch to put on the suit, and just swing around the city. If he happened to see a crime in progress, he’d intervene. But admittedly, he wasn’t really trying to look for trouble today.

After the final bell rang he ran home to change (Aunt May’s desperate pleas for him to stop losing backpacks, textbooks and clothes around the city finally set in). He quickly raced up to the roof and took off, catching his web on the building next door and swinging away.

With the first swoop off the edge of the building and into the air, Peter realized how much he missed this.

He swung around his usual streets, waving to a few passersby who exclaimed their delight seeing him swing around again. It made Peter happy to know he was a missed part of people’s routines, a piece of the backdrop of his community, like his wearing the suit again was a step back toward normalcy for everyone.

Peter decided to expand his path, and started heading a bit more south in the direction of Brooklyn. He swung from building to building, doing loops, twists and turns.

It was liberating.

He continued to swing and ended up in a small industrial district. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted several men and women wearing matching FBI jackets. It was an already processed crime scene, with FBI agents walking around a loading dock pointing at small markers on the ground to show where evidence was.

Peter swung up to the top of a water tower on the roof of a factory overlooking the scene and landed with a flip.

“Hey, Karen?”

The AI in his suit activated. “Peter - it’s been awhile. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah - uh, I’ve just been taking a break, you know? I have a question - can you look up what happened at that loading dock? Like was it on the news or something?”

“Just a moment,” Karen said as she searched. “Um, Peter, I did find some information but -”

“But what? What happened here, Karen? You can tell me.”

“It’s a little disturbing.”

Peter thought it was actually sweet that Karen was trying to protect him, but that still didn’t answer his question. “Just tell me.”

Karen paused. “A few days ago three men were murdered at that loading dock and a truck was stolen.”

“What was in the truck?”

“I can’t find information on that but that factory makes propellants and aerosol cans that are used in things like air fresheners and cleaning products.”

“That - that’s an odd thing to steal. Why’s the FBI here?”

“No info is available about that. The commissioner of the police department held a press briefing two days ago and made it seem like the NYPD was still covering the case.”

“How were they killed?”

“That’s the odd thing, each man died in a different way. One was shot, one was clubbed and the other had an arrow to the heart.”

“Jesus - that’s awful.”

“Yes. Whoever was responsible for this must be a very dangerous person.”

Peter sighed. It turned out he didn’t have to go looking for trouble. It would find him anyway.

That night, Peter went home and started looking up news articles about the loading dock murders. He couldn’t find much beyond what Karen had already told him, but he still felt like he was forgetting something.

He looked at his phone. He wanted to talk to Tony but he didn’t want to disturb him if he was dealing with a problem with Steve. And it felt like he didn’t have enough information to approach Tony either.

But deep down, in his gut, he knew something was wrong.

Why would the FBI investigate a truck robbery?

Why so violent?

What was he missing?

He went to bed, annoyed, because he felt like the answer was just out of reach.

The next morning, he woke up, and got ready for school as usual. Out in the living room Aunt May was standing in the kitchen pouring coffee and listening to the news on the TV in the living room.

Listening to the news jogged his memory. Something about the news anchor’s voice - and it came to him. He remembered the weekend of the funeral, sitting in his room at the compound watching the news when Bucky’s banging on Steve’s door distracted him. The news story was about a robbery, and some homicides, and federal agents investigating.

“Peter?”

“Huh?”

“Everything okay? You’ve just been standing there silently for like five minutes. You’re gonna be late for school. Is everything alright?” Aunt May asked.

“Oh, yeah, just thinking about what I have to do at school today. Busy catching up for the week we missed. Uh, I’m gonna go now. Love you!.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Love you too!” She called after him as he ran out of the apartment.

Peter ran toward the subway, as if his feet were trying to mimic the speed of the thoughts racing around his head.

Two violent robberies that lead to several, violent murders both being investigated by the FBI. They had to be related.

A factory that made aerosols and a chemical lab. Peter needed more information.

He wanted to kick himself. For a few weeks he sat around doing nothing all the while some bad guy was hurting innocent people and stealing supplies for what?

The fact that he had to spent a whole day at school was _agony_. But these robberies probably weren’t happening in broad daylight, so even if he skipped school to go investigate, it might not lead to much.

It didn’t help that all of New York knew he was a teenager who should be in school. Probably not a good look for Spiderman to be seen skipping school, even if no one knew exactly who was under the mask. Peter begrudgingly entered the subway station and got on the train.

The school day felt like it lasted an entire month. But finally, the day was over, and Peter was free. And given that it was Friday, he had the whole weekend to investigate.

He got home, grabbed a snack and sat down at his laptop, pulling up news stories from the first robbery at the lab.

From what he could tell, the robber killed all ten guards patrolling outside the lab, which produced different chemical solutions, entered the facility and stole an unknown substance. The FBI was called in to investigate because the lab was not cooperating with local police in sharing information in what had been stolen.

Peter kept researching, and found that over the past few weeks, there had been three other similar robberies where multiple people were killed to steal either chemical compounds or materials that combined together, made it seem like someone was trying to put together some kind of . . . weapon? Maybe?

Peter wasn’t sure, but it couldn’t be good news and whoever it was needed to be stopped before they could make something that could hurt a lot of people.

A few days later, Peter realized what day it was. He pulled out his phone and sent a message.

< _Happy birthday, Mr. Stark. Hope everything is okay_

> _Thanks, Pete. How’s NY?_

< _Umm okay I guess I’m patrolling again_

> _And how’s that going?_

< _I’m investigating something._

< _Might be serious._

After a moment, his phone rang.

 _Crap_.

“Hey Mr. Stark.”

“Hey, I can’t talk long. Steve just went out to get us food. What’s going on?”

Peter described the two robberies, that they were different weapons with different things stolen but both investigated by the FBI.

“So there are no leads on who is doing this, or if they’re actually connected?” Tony asked.

“No, nothing besides people murdered, something stolen, and then the FBI.”

“Alright,” Tony paused. “Try to keep a little distance on this one. I can’t really get my head around it not seeing the information myself and if they _are_ connected then the person responsible must be very dangerous.”

“I’ve handled dangerous people before -”

“I know, I know, Peter. Just - keep investigating and see what you can learn but don’t do anything that’s going to put you in the direct line of danger, especially if you don’t know what you’re dealing with for now. It’s not that I don’t think you can’t handle yourself, but if you don’t know what your enemy is capable of or what their resources and skills are, you could be setting yourself up for a trap.”

“Okay. I’ll lay low. Investigate first.”

“Investigate first, right.” Tony paused again. “Shit, okay I think I hear Steve coming back. Gotta go - keep me updated.”

“Bye, Mr. Stark.”

Peter went back to patrolling. He asked Karen to pull up a list of different laboratories and factories around the City - it was a long list but at least it was something, a way to focus his attention. Maybe he’d even be lucky - or, arguably, unlucky - and actually run into the person or people responsible for this.

* * *

 

One day turned into three into a week and then into two weeks. Rhodey was wrong about one thing - after two weeks not only were Steve and Tony not back, they hadn’t received any word from them beyond Tony’s yes responses to Rhodey’s “Are you still alive” texts. There was zero indication of them returning either.

The compound was continuing to empty out, with Bucky deciding to leave as well. Nat and Sam stood in Bucky’s doorway listening to him explain himself.

“I’m very grateful that Tony extended an invitation for me to stay here but if Steve’s not here I think I’m gonna head back to Wakanda for a bit. With everything that happened so abruptly, I never got the full confirmation that the conditioning is out of my head for good.”

“What should I tell Steve when he comes back?” Sam asked as they watched Bucky pack.

“Well _if_ he comes back, just tell him where to find me. Hell, tell him to join me. Helping out with goats and relaxing in nature might just do him some good.”

Natasha had spent a lot of time down at the firing range since Tony and Steve left. She was worried about them, of course. They were her teammates and her friends. And Natasha knew Steve must have been hurting if he was willing to run off like he did. But still, she couldn’t help but feel abandoned. Of their original team, three of them had already been killed. And then out of nowhere the other two just took off and left her behind.

She finished unloading a clip into a target. None of the bullets came close to the bullseye. She sighed. She hated feeling so scattered. She put away her equipment and left the firing range, taking a walk alone around the compound.

On top of the deeper pain of dealing with a broken up team, Natasha was also literally on her own at the compound. Wanda and Vision had each other, and were hardly around half the time. Rhodey had taken over managing the Avengers in Tony’s absence, and that required frequent trips between New York City, Washington D.C., and other UN offices in Geneva and Nairobi.

That just left her and Sam. A few months ago that wouldn’t have been an issue; two years on the run together had let them become especially close - but Sam had been keeping to himself the past several days.

The more time went on, the more Sam made it clear he was angry with all of them for just letting Steve go. She was anticipating that at any moment, she’d hear the sounds of Sam packing his bags to leave the compound too.

She was a little curious about where Sam was spending his free time at the compound. The training center was empty, and the gym was dark. There was no one in the library. Wanda and Vision were in their usual spot on the balcony overlooking the river behind the compound. Rhodey was away in Washington D.C. handling some Avengers matters. It made Nat a little concerned that she couldn’t find Sam - maybe he had finally taken off.

She thought about what she knew about Sam, and where he might go.

Her eyes rose up to the roof. She went inside walked up the access staircase that led to the roof of the compound. She saw a crack of light where a brick was holding the access door open. She carefully opened the door and closed it, keeping the brick in place. Although, she had a feeling even if the door shut FRIDAY would be able to let them back in.

She scanned around and saw Sam laid out on the southern edge of the roof.

Sam had a whole setup here - a patio table and chairs, a giant beach umbrella over a padded mat, a stereo and a cooler. Sam was laid out on the padded mat, a beer next to him. She could hear music coming from a stereo connected to his phone. He turned and looked at her.

“Hey,” she said with a wave, a little hesitant.

“Hi. How’d you find me?”

“What do birds do? They roost up high.”

Sam smiled. “There’s cold beer in the cooler if you want one.”

She felt a small wave of relief and grabbed one and sat down next to him.

“I’m sorry. I know you’re still a little pissed that we told you not to follow Steve.” she said, reaching for a bottle opener next to Sam’s leg.

“Well, the past couple of weeks have been frustrating, to say the least.” Sam sat up. “I’m worried about him, Nat.”

“I know, I am too.” She took a sip. “Are you thinking of going after him?”

“I considered it, but I have no clue on how to find him. And I’m betting they’re not staying in the same place. Pretty hard to keep track of a moving target.”

“You know he’s safe, right?”

“I know that Tony is with him, looking out for him. But they have such a complicated history, you know? And Tony lost the exact same people Steve did, he has to be hurting too. I just don’t know if it’s the _best_ idea for two people still in shock and dealing with grief to be wandering around god knows where by themselves.”

“And is it safe to say you’re also just the tiniest bit pissed he didn’t ask you to go along with him?”

Sam looked her in the eye. “You too, huh?”

“Yeah, me too,” Nat replied, and they spent the rest of the afternoon chatting on the roof.

The next day, Natasha was sitting with Sam and Wanda in the living room watching TV when all three of their phones went off.

Natasha looked down. An unknown number had sent her a text message.

> _Hey, it’s Steve. Got a new phone. Hope you are all okay._

Sam looked up from his phone. “Did you both also get a text from Steve?” Nat and Wanda both nodded yes.

“Okay, don’t answer right away. We should check to see if it’s really him first.” Sam spent the next several minutes typing on his phone and checking new messages.

“Okay. It’s him. I asked him to send a picture doing something weird. It’s him.” Sam went back to messaging Steve.

Natasha didn’t know what to say. She walked back to her room, sat down at her desk, picked up her phone, and finally typed out a response.

< _Are you boys okay?_

> _Yeah we’re safe, riding around, getting by._

< _‘Getting by’ doesn’t sound like okay_

> _How are you guys doing?_

He was avoiding her question.

< _Bucky is back in Wakanda, resting & making sure the programming is gone. We’re doing okay too. Trying to get back to normal. You’re still kinda dodging my question though _

< _You know, if you need a place to go to clear your head, I’m sure T’Challa would have you both over if you just asked_

> _I know. We’re good for now_

Now she was getting frustrated. How could they possibly be good?

> _As good as you can be just riding around going nowhere for two weeks straight, right?_

A few minutes later, she got a response.

< _I’m genuinely sorry we left without you, Nat._

Good. She was glad he realized that he had hurt her. But she also felt bad because she knew he was going through a hard time as well. Aggravated, annoyed, and completely over feeling anything, she threw her phone across her room onto her bed.

She looked around her room. There were still a few boxes of stuff that she hadn’t bothered to sort through - probably just old clothes and make-up that she left behind when she took off after Germany.

She pulled one of the boxes over and opened it. A few tubes of lipstick - god knows how old - and some old shirts like she assumed, but there was more at the bottom. She reached in and pulled out a box of Uno cards. She couldn't believe she still had these. She thought about the first time they played.

_During the search for Loki’s scepter, the Avengers had traveled all around the world on missions to get more information. On a particularly long journey back to New York from the South Pacific, the team was sitting around bored. Well, most of the team - Steve and Tony were sitting at the front of the QuinJet together quietly chatting and joking around._

_Nat sat with Clint, Thor, and Bruce in a circle on the floor at the back of the QuinJet._

_“I know we just use these to go to and from missions, but we should really add some books or card games or something,” Bruce said._

_“You bored, Bruce?” Clint asked._

_“Yeah, I mean I’m enjoying the company but it’s a little slow around here.”_

_Clint reached into his bag and pulled out a deck of Uno cards. Bruce explained the rules to Thor and dealt the cards. The game started slowly, as they made their way around the circle putting down and picking up cards._

_Nat placed down a blue 2, on top of the blue 5 Thor had just placed. Clint hesitated, looking at the pile, then to Bruce, then back to his hand and back to Bruce, the one person that he probably didn’t want to piss off._

_Bruce instantly knew what was coming._

_“Just drop the damn Draw 4, Clint.”_

_“Red,” Clint said as he places the card down. “I’m sorry! It’s all I have. Blame Thor for making it blue.”_

_Nat and Thor cracked up as Bruce shook his head smiling and drew four cards._

_Nat looked over Bruce’s shoulder at Steve and Tony in the front. Steve had gotten up to grab something and Natasha couldn’t help but notice Tony checking Steve out as Steve turned around and reached for a map. And then how Steve had his hand around Tony’s shoulder quietly smiling down at him while Tony examined the map._

_“Uno. Natasha, your turn.”_

_She snapped out of it and looked back at the game. Thor threw down a red 9 and only had one card left._

_“Oh damn it. How are you so good at this already?” she said, reaching for the deck to draw a card as the others laughed._

Up until now, anytime she cried it was out of frustration, exhaustion, of being wiped out and overwhelmed.

But looking at these old Uno cards, how heavy it felt in her hand, thinking about her team - her friends - she started crying just out of sadness.

 

* * *

 

The recipe needed something else. The reaction wasn’t getting the desired results, and his employer demanded he pick up more supplies.

He approached the lab. Business as usual; kill any guards or staff in the way, walk in uninterrupted, take what was necessary.

Up until now, it almost felt too easy. He was met with essentially no resistance. The people he encountered never knew what hit them; while that meant he was doing a fantastic job as an assassin, it was actually almost boring, to just sneak around and kill with no challenge.

An employee was standing at the back smoking a cigarette on break. A perfect target - kill the man, take his ID, get access to the building.

He approached the employee from behind. One bullet, from a gun with a silencer on it should do the trick.

For whatever reason, the employee suddenly turned around and saw him standing there.

He raised the gun to the man’s head, about to pull the trigger.

“HEY STOP” called a voice to his right side, and a white web grabbed the gun out of his hand and flung it into the distance.

_Finally, some fun._


	4. Crossroads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter makes a discovery and needs to reach out for help.

Peter had been swinging around manufacturing districts, hanging out near factories and laboratories around the city hoping for an opportunity to cross paths with whoever had been committing the robberies.

Karen had helped him compile a list of labs, factories, and other places around the city that might be of interest to the robber, and he had spent his patrols passing by as many of these locations as he could. Even if he didn’t find anyone, he hoped at least his presence would show that  _somebody_ was watching, that this guy wasn’t just going to walk all over this city and take whatever he wanted with no pushback.

It had been a couple of weeks since Peter last talked to Tony on the phone; he had sent a couple of texts, but the reality was that there were no new updates to share; for all of his swinging around, and keeping an ear on the ground, the robber had seemingly vanished. The good news was that that meant no one else was getting murdered, but the bad news was that Peter was no closer to figuring out what the guy wanted or what his plan was.

It was a Friday night, so Peter decided to stay out a little later. Peter couldn’t wait for summer when this wouldn’t be an issue; when he could spend the entire summer swinging around New York or at the Compound and he wouldn’t have to worry about school anymore.

While classes had officially ended, he still had final exams and a couple of state exams before he was done with the school year for good. Peter couldn’t think of a time when he resented school more; his heart wasn’t in it, but more importantly, neither was his head. He had a calculus final on Monday, but instead of spending the weekend reviewing problems and playing around with his graphing calculator, he was swinging around factories and old warehouses. Looking for anything, and still finding nothing.

“Karen, what facilities from our list are we near?”

“There’s a few warehouses you marked two blocks north and a lab you haven’t swung by another five blocks past that.”

“Okay, let’s head that way.”

One warehouse was silent, and another had plenty of guards and flood lighting filling the area. Two of the guards waved to Peter so he took a moment to drop down and warn them to be on alert, just in case.

Peter kept swinging toward the lab, which was on the opposite side of a six-lane street. Peter needed more momentum to swing past all of that, so he climbed to the top of a tall building next to the road.

New York can be an odd place; and over the past year and a half of being Spiderman, Peter had come across some odd things on rooftops; a few packs of college kids smoking weed, men guiding giant flocks of pigeons through the sky, couples in the middle of a romantic evening, and even secret rooftop raves.

Peter was familiar with stumbling upon strangers on rooftops, but the crouched person he found on the roof of this building was strange, even for him. Peter crept up quietly and hid behind a vent. He stared at the person. They were wearing a long gray cloak, and despite being crouched over, they still appeared very large. Before Peter could make a move, the figure pulled out a hook and zipped down heavy duty cables going across the street. Peter swung after the man.

Sure enough, the cloaked man approached the lab Peter had been planning on swinging by.

Peter could feel his heart racing. He climbed to the roof of a building whose lot abutted that of the lab. It was only a one-story building, so he was still relatively close to the ground.

He watched the man creep around the side of the lab. Peter noticed a worker, standing at the back corner of the lot near a back entrance who was smoking a cigarette and facing the opposite direction.

Peter saw the hooded figure reach into his cloak and pull a gun.

The next few seconds felt like an eternity. The employee turned around to have a gun pointed in his face. Peter’s heart felt like it was in a vice.

Before the man could pull the trigger, Peter screamed, “HEY STOP” and webbed the gun, grabbing it out of the man’s hand.

 _Nice move, genius, surprising the dude pointing a loaded gun,_ Peter thought to himself as the gun was chucked off into the distance behind him.

The employee ran away screaming. The hooded figure turned and Peter jumped back.

The hooded man was tall and very muscular, with his grey cloak pulled over his head and dripping down to his knees. Harnesses where he stored weapons - Peter had no idea how many, but the man was clearly still armed - crossed his chest. Peter hadn’t seen it before, but a sword was sheathed to the man’s left side and it also looked like he was carrying a shield.

But the most startling thing about the man was the detailed skull mask he wore over his face.

The man quickly reached into his cloak and pulled out a small crossbow, already loaded, and fired a bolt at Peter. Peter webbed and swung over to the next building to dodge it.

Peter could see the man’s eyes through the mask. He was watching Peter’s every movement. Peter felt like he was being studied; he felt uneasy.

Peter webbed the man’s arm against the lab building, but the man quickly drew his sword with his free hand and cut the webbing off.

Peter froze; he wasn’t sure what to do next. It was clear the man was still _very_ armed so attacking him hand to hand wasn’t really an option until he knew for sure that the man wouldn’t just pull another gun out while he was in close range; Peter was sure Tony had put some sort of ballistics protection in his suit but he wasn’t about to test it by getting shot. Webbing the man up probably wasn’t going to work with that sword of his either.

Thanks to Peter’s hesitation, the man charged toward the building, and Peter saw a hook shoot up to the roof and before he knew it the man was on the roof towering over him. Peter flipped back on top of some mechanical equipment to put a bit more distance between them.

The man jumped up, sword drawn and began slicing at Peter. Peter webbed the sword with his right hand, pulling his right hand up and then kicked the man in the ribs. The man tumbled over the mechanical equipment and rolled onto the roof. Peter tried to web him but the man did a similar flip backward to the one Peter just did.

The man charged forward again and Peter had to block a bevy of blows as the man cornered him toward the edge of the roof. Peter teetered over the edge and with one punch the man hit him over. Peter fell backward, webbing behind him. He felt the web catch and turned to swing away, barely missing the ground. He webbed again higher, to gain some momentum and height and retreated.

He hated to do it but he had to regroup.

Peter landed on the roof of an apartment complex several blocks away and spun around to check if he had been followed. Once he was satisfied that he was actually alone, he crouched against the roof’s bulkhead to catch his breath.

“Karen, who was that? Do we have any information about who the hell that was?”

“Do you want me to look through the Avengers’ database?”

“Look literally every place please,” Peter replied.

Karen took several minutes. Peter took a moment to collect himself and survey his injuries. There was nothing major - he would have a few bruises, and his head hurt a bit from when the man punched him over the edge - but deep down Peter knew he was lucky it wasn’t worse.

“Okay. I found something in an old SHIELD file posted online. A match on the general description. Toby Masters. Alias: Taskmaster. Former HYDRA assassin. Looking at this file - it’s not good, Peter.”

Peter took out his phone and typed out a message to Tony.

< _Are you free to talk? It’s urgent_

He got a quick response.

> _Steve is asleep I can go into the bathroom if need be is everything okay?_

< _Honestly no I figured out who was doing the robberies_

After a moment Peter’s phone started ringing.

“Hey Mr. Stark,” Peter answered quietly.

“Hey, Pete. Are you okay?” Tony said, lowly.

“Just barely. A little scratched up but I’m okay.”

“What happened?”

Peter described the events of the night earlier.

“So I asked Karen and she looked through her files and she said it’s an old HYDRA assassin. Taskmaster. He’s kind of a freaky looking dude, and after a while, I don’t know, there was something so familiar about the way he sometimes moved. Like he was copying me.”

Peter didn’t know what he wanted to get out of talking to Tony. Tony was god knows where away from his lab and computers and the compound where he may have been more of use to provide answers.

“I want to kick myself for retreating but I was just overwhelmed.”

“No, Pete, you did the right thing by falling back.”

“Did I though? Who knows if I even stopped him from taking what he needed tonight? I froze up there,” Peter said, starting to get worked up. “I had him and I could have stopped him - what if someone else gets hurt? Or killed? I could have stopped him and I let him go I -” Peter was starting to cry out of frustration.

“Peter, Peter. Please, calm down.”

“No, I have to go back after him, I have to stop him tonight. I -”

Tony sounded exasperated on the other end.

“Pete, _please_. You just have to let this one go. Please. I’m not going to be able to come there and bail you out if you get in a jam. I can’t leave Steve right now.”

“But Mr. Stark, he’s going to get away -”

Tony whispered harshly. “He’s a trained master assassin, Pete. He WILL kill you if you go after him. Think about May. What would she think if she lost you again after just getting you back?”

“But -”

“GO HOME,” Tony yelled. Peter could hear Tony swear quietly away from the phone.

Tony spoke again. “I’m sorry, I just - Just let Rhodey and the other Avengers take care of it. It’s bad enough already that we lost - that we’ve had casualties recently. And Steve is a mess, I’m a mess, please. Please. For me. I can’t handle the idea of losing you too. Promise me you won’t go after him alone and that you’ll let the other Avengers handle this.”

Peter felt guilty for stressing Tony out more. He imagined it had to be incredibly difficult to handle losing three close friends. And if Cap was really as out of sorts as it seemed, that was where Tony’s attention needed to be.

“Okay. I promise I won't go after Taskmaster myself. But is there a way I can reach the other Avengers?”

“You should be able to contact them with your suit.”

“Wait, really? I’ve had a direct line to the Avengers this whole time?”

Peter could hear Tony let out a small laugh. “Number one - you  _are_ one of the Avengers now. Number two - I put a heater, a drone and taser webs in your suit and I’m not gonna put a connection to the compound? Who do you think I am?”

Peter laughed.

Tony continued. “Pete, you know I’m saying all of this not because I don’t think you’re capable, right? Your safety is just my top priority. I know it sounds bad but I would a thousand times over let the bad guy get away if it means getting you home safe. And I made you an Avenger myself - you have a team to back you up. Use them. I promise they’ll help you.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“Thank you, Pete, for hearing me out. Stay safe out there.”

“You too, Mr. Stark.”

“I will, I promise. Talk to you soon.”

“Bye, Mr. Stark.”

“Hey, Karen?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“Can you call the Avengers compound?”

“Of course. Anyone, in particular, you’d like to speak to?”

Peter, realizing he was actually about to call the Avengers, as one of them, with a possible mission already felt a little awkward.

“Umm, no. Let’s just see who answers.”

Peter could hear the call ringing, and a voice picking up.

 

* * *

 

At the compound, Nat sat at the breakfast counter on the kitchen island picking off a plate of carrot sticks. Sam was sat behind her, in the living space, watching the 11 pm news.

The broadcast was discussing an issue at a local firehouse when FRIDAY’s voice muted the broadcast.

“Incoming call from Peter Parker. Registered member of the Avengers. Alias: Spiderman.”

Nat heard Sam let out the loudest sigh. Without turning around, Nat said, “Answer call.”

“Hello?”

“Isn’t it past your bedtime?” Sam said.

“ _Sam_. Cut it out,” Nat said and then slightly turning toward the screen, continued. “Peter, it’s Natasha and Sam. Is everything alright?”

“Mr. Stark told me to call because there’s some kind of crime spree going on in New York and I need help stopping it.”

“That’s what the police are for,” Sam said. Natasha threw a kitchen towel from the counter at him.

“Yeah, the cops are not going to stand a chance against a trained HYDRA assassin like this guy,” Peter replied.

Nat fully turned around.

“How do you know he’s with HYDRA?”

“Creepy dude. Skull face. Looked up any matching records and it came up. Called Taskmaster? I do-”

“What did you say?” Nat asked, taken by surprise.

“Taskmaster? He’s a really weird dude. Lots of weapons, moves very quickly, almost like he mimics how you move -”

“You know this guy?” Sam asked Natasha.

“From old SHIELD intel yes, and he’s bad news. Peter, you did the right thing calling us. What do you need help with?” Natasha said as she got up and walked to the screen. She began pulling up files.

Peter paused. “I just fought him and I barely got away. Honestly, I’m a bit over my head. I’ve got a bunch of footage and info but I’m not sure what to make of it and beyond that - I - I honestly don’t want to take him on alone.”

“Where are you right now?” Nat asked.

“I’m heading home.”

Nat looked up from the notes she pulled up. “Don’t do that.”

“Wait, why not?”

“Kid, you just pissed off a master assassin. The last thing you do is show him where you live,” Sam said.

 

* * *

 

Only several blocks from his apartment building, Peter could feel a knot form in his stomach and he stopped swinging and perched himself on the top level of a parking garage.

“Do you think he’s following me?” Peter asked.

“If I had to bet I’d say yes. But better safe than sorry.”

“So what should I do?”

“You’re gonna come here and spend the night at the compound. Start heading north. Go up to the Bronx or Westchester County if you have to. We can drive down and pick you up,” Natasha instructed.

Peter felt the hair on his arm stand. Something was wrong. “Umm, guys -”

He took a small step back and an arrow whizzed by Peter’s face and into a parked car next to him. Peter turned around to see Taskmaster across the garage, bow in hand, loading up another arrow.

“ _He’s here!”_ Peter shouted and jumped out of the way.

 

* * *

 

At the compound, Sam jumped up out of his seat.

“Sam, go get Rhodey. Peter needs help ASAP. Peter, stay on the line with me. Can you send me your location?” Natasha pulled up some maps while Sam ran toward the hangar where Rhodey was.

 

* * *

 

“I’ll send your location and everything we have to her right now, Peter,” Karen chimed in.

Peter swung as fast as he could, racing toward the Whitestone Bridge that would take him out of Queens and across the river to the Bronx.

He heard the sound of an engine roaring behind him. Peter peeked over his shoulder to see Taskmaster on a motorcycle barreling down the street and toward the bridge in pursuit. He had a gun in one hand and aimed at Peter, taking a shot.

“Pete, are you still with me?” Nat asked.

“Running. He’s chasing me. Almost at the bridge.”

“Okay. We’re tracking your suit and sending Rhodey to get you right now. He’s flying there but he’ll still need a few minutes to get to the city. Hang in there.”

Peter crossed the river by swinging underneath the bridge and out of the line of fire. Even if Taskmaster stopped up top to try to shoot under the bridge, he wouldn’t be able to see where Peter was due to the lack of light under the bridge. Peter was able to collect himself as he kept swinging, mind racing at what he would do when he reached the end of the bridge.

He wasn’t willing to wait for Rhodey under the bridge just to have Taskmaster find him and send him into the dark water below.

As he landed on the river bank on the other side of the bridge, he hid in the shadows of the suspension tower of the bridge and sent out the drone to scan the immediate area to see if Taskmaster was close.

The drone spotted the motorcycle parked by the side of the road. Peter webbed up back to the bottom of the bridge. He braced himself, as the drone showed that Taskmaster was slowly creeping down to the riverbank. Peter waited, webbed the edge of the bridge, and swung down. He raised his foot, which made contact with the back of Taskmaster’s head, sending him face first into the rocky sand.

Peter was still in open air, and launched another web back to the bridge to use his momentum to swing back toward Taskmaster. But when he turned around, he saw Taskmaster on his haunches, like Peter was earlier. He dodged Peter’s return kick, instead jumping up and slicing Peter’s web so Peter tumbled into the rocky sand himself.

Peter righted himself and looked up. Taskmaster raised his sword to take a swing when Peter heard a familiar sounding whir. A repulsor shot went off and Taskmaster fell to his side into the shallow water as Peter felt himself get picked up from behind and flown off into the air. He looked around his torso and recognized the familiar silver of the War Machine suit.

“You alright, kid?” Rhodey asked.

“I’m fine, let me go. He’s gonna get away -”

“No way. Gotta get you safe first. Tony would literally kill us if we let something happen to you. And he's already gone by now. I don't even have to look to know he fled the second I picked you up.”

Peter sighed and went a bit lax in Rhodey’s arms as they flew back toward the compound.

 

* * *

 

He watched as the kid and War Machine flew off into the distance. He would have to try to get the needed material somewhere else and fled from the shore as soon as he could.

He wasn’t annoyed at the boy’s interference. In fact, having the Avengers on his trail would make his employer’s plans that much more dangerous once they were put into action.

Getting the attention of the Avengers would not be a curse, but a blessing.

 

* * *

 

Natasha and Sam ran outside as they saw Rhodey approach in the distance holding Peter in his arms, but Rhodey flew over their heads and right to the doors of the medical wing.

“I’m fine,” Peter insisted as Rhodey dragged him by the arm to an open medical bay.

The faceplate lifted up. “Then this checkup should be quick,” Rhodey replied.

The same nurse that looked him over a few weeks earlier entered the med bay. She raised an eyebrow at Peter.

“Not staying out of trouble, huh?” she asked, putting on a cuff to check Peter’s blood pressure.

“No, I guess not.”

 

* * *

 

Nat and Sam returned to the living room and looked over the notes Peter had taken and the footage of what he had seen earlier that night.

“Okay, FRIDAY, can you please look up and see if there are any other similar robberies or attacks anywhere else that Peter might have missed?” Natasha asked.

“Of course,” FRIDAY responded.

“So it was him?” Sam asked, looking up from the file he was reading.

“Matched the description. And I don’t know how many dudes with creepy skull masks and swords _you_ know walking around, but there seems to be a match here.”

“So what can this guy do?”

“Well, as I said, he’s a former HYDRA assassin, an expert in several kinds of weapons. According to the file, he also has something akin to ‘photographic reflexes’; he watches how you fight, and instantly picks up on your techniques and fighting style to use against you.”

“Wonderful.”

FRIDAY chimed in. “There were a few attacks in New York but also a few attacks in Chicago over the past several weeks.”

FRIDAY displayed information about the attacks. Similar robberies, where the staff was left murdered and something was taken. Chemicals, metals, other more seemingly innocent objects.

“No wonder the FBI had difficulty connecting these at first. With all the different weapons and different items taken, it doesn’t look like the same M.O.”

“We should check out the sites in Chicago to see if there’s any information we can get,” Sam suggested.

Peter walked into the living area from the medical wing, holding an ice pack to his head.

“Hi, guys,” Peter said, sitting down in the living area next to Natasha. He looked at the screens with information about Chicago.

“We’re going to be heading to Chicago to investigate a lead. We should be back tomorrow night. Would you be okay hanging out here overnight by yourself?” Natasha asked.

“Chicago. No wonder why it seemed like he disappeared. Ugh,” Peter pressed the ice pack on his head with more pressure. “Yeah. The nurse said I need to rest. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what you’re going to find. But you should check it out anyway.” Peter looked very upset.

Reading the room, Sam said, “I’ll start getting our gear ready and letting Rhodey know.” He walked toward the garage, leaving Natasha alone with Peter.

“Is everything okay?” Natasha asked.

“No. I can’t believe I let him get away. If he hurts anyone else I’ll never forgive myself.” Peter shut his eyes.

“Don’t beat yourself up. You’ve already done a lot. We wouldn’t even know that any of this was happening without the work you’ve done so far.”

“Thanks. But it still feels pretty crappy to know you had the bad guy right there and he got away.”

“Sometimes you just have to fall back and regroup. Just because it feels like you’ve lost the battle doesn’t mean you’ve lost the war. We still don’t know what we’re fully up against. At least now, we have the benefit of knowing who we’re fighting, and we can better prepare for that actual battle instead of fighting on the fly with no info. We’ll find Taskmaster, and we’ll stop whatever he’s planning on doing. I promise.”

Peter sat there for a moment, silent, taking in what Natasha had said. “Okay. Thank you. Alright, I think I’m gonna head to my room for a bit.”

“Alright. We’re probably going to head out soon, so we’ll keep you updated. Good night.”

“Night.” Peter got up and left.

 

* * *

 

Peter returned to his room and called Aunt May.

“Peter, it’s almost midnight. Where the hell are you?”

“I’m at the Avengers compound.”

“What?! Upstate? Why? How’d you get there?”

Peter explained what happened.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to come home but the others were afraid that he was following me and sure enough he was so I swung over to the Bronx and he chased me down but Colonel Rhodes picked me up in the War Machine armor and flew me here to keep me safe for the night.”

“I - I don’t -” Aunt May was speechless. Peter felt like someone kicked him in the stomach.

“Would it be alright if I stay here until Sunday night?”

“Hmm. Okay. Fine. But you need to call me in the morning and let me know how you’re feeling.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Peter changed into pajamas and returned to the kitchen to grab a snack before heading to bed.

 

* * *

 

Nat, Sam, and Rhodey didn’t stay in Chicago for long; they stopped by each of the robbery sites, looked around, and didn’t find much of anything.

On the ride back to New York, Sam was looking over notes. Rhodey finished entering the autopilot settings.

Nat was in her usual spot, curled up in one of the seats toward the back of the QuinJet.

There was a moment where Nat had to stop herself from crying. Not out of fear, but frustration. She realized she was still waiting for Tony to figure things out or for Steve to come up with a plan.

It was so aggravating to just want to ask her friends for help and know that two were so far away and the other three were never coming back. She never realized how dependent she had become on having her team after they had spent so long preparing to fight Thanos.

That dependency alone made her feel off her game. She couldn’t get past the headfog of everything that had happened over the past few months.

There was also the growing pit of doubt in her stomach. She felt relief that Peter actually caught on that something was going on, but the responsibility for recognizing a national or global danger shouldn’t have to fall on the shoulders of a 16-year-old kid, even if he was a part of the team.

How could they have missed multiple robberies of dangerous chemicals? And all the other things that were taken? The multiple murders? And all by a former HYDRA agent?

They were floundering.

 

* * *

 

They returned to the compound.

“FRIDAY, where’s Peter?” Rhodey asked.

“He’s in the lab at his workstation.”

“Could you please let him know we’re back?”

Sam and Rhodey both returned to their rooms. Natasha sat in the conference room, which had notes on display on the walls. She was drinking coffee, reviewing old files when she heard a knock on the door.

“How was Chicago?”

“Didn’t really find anything. Just like the sites in New York City like you said. You can sit if you want.”

“Feeling better?”

‘Yeah, definitely.” Peter sat down. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I know Mr. Stark is traveling with Cap, but what exactly happened?”

Natasha put down her coffee mug. “Well, after the battle, and losing the other Avengers, Steve wasn’t taking it so well. Would hardly eat, or talk to other people or even leave his room. I think staying here may have brought up too many memories, and he had to leave. I told Tony he was taking off and Tony went with him. We haven’t heard much from them since.”

“Do we know where they are though?”

Nat shook her head. “No. Not really. They’re on Steve’s motorcycle, but from what Sam could get out of Steve it seems like they’re just bouncing around the country. They’re probably somewhere in the midwest by now.”

Peter thought it over. “I’m sorry, by the way. For your loss. I’ve spoken with Mr. Stark a few times since and he just seems to be going on autopilot like he’s afraid of what might happen if he stops. And Cap - if he was this hurt that it made him leave home, he has to be hurting. I can’t imagine how much you must be hurting, not having either of them here.”

“Thanks. That means a lot.”

They continued to chat, about Peter’s interests, his friends, school. He told her about the design of the Spiderman suit, and what Tony had added. He asked about her experiences on the team and about rumors and myths that were pretty well spread about different Avengers.

Natasha answered his questions and shared some background information about the team and funny stories from years ago (the time Clint literally got his hand stuck in a cookie jar and everyone refused to help; the time Steve bet Tony he couldn’t go a week without relying on technology, which Tony lost in under an hour).

Nat hadn’t gotten to spend a lot of time with Peter when they were all in Germany; only a brief introduction before Tony had pulled him aside to go over the plan. But after chatting with Peter now, seeing how excited he was and how much he genuinely cared, Nat understood why Tony liked Peter so much.

 

* * *

 

Natasha looked over the list of stolen items again.

As far as the chemicals, she didn’t know what to make of it.

Her first instinct was a gut punch - to just ask Bruce. That was, of course, impossible.

Her next option, Tony, was just adding salt to the wound because he wasn’t there either.

She thought about who else she knew, and picked up her phone.

“Hey, I need a favor.”

“Good, because I happen to owe you one.” T’Challa’s steady voice rang out over the call.

“For what?”

“Reporting you to Ross. Had I known Barnes was innocent earlier I wouldn’t have done that. Also, you were part of the team that helped save me, my sister, half my people and also half of the universe. I think that warrants a favor or two.” He paused. “I also apologize for not stopping to say hello or offer my condolences directly during the funeral.”

Natasha smiled. Even if he weren’t a king, she was sure he would automatically be this polite, like he couldn’t help himself.

“That’s okay. Honestly, I think I was so tired and so out of it I have no idea who else was actually there besides the people I live with.”

“So how can I help you?’

“If I sent over a list of chemicals and materials would someone in your science division be able to tell me possible weapons that could be created from it?”

“Of course. My sister Shuri could probably have an answer for you within a few days.”

“Great. I’m also sending a phone number to you, it’s the new phone Steve is using.”

“I have to ask. What’s going on over there? Sergeant Barnes told me Captain Rogers left with Stark a few weeks ago. What happened?”

Natasha described what had happened over the past month - between Steve’s behavior, leaving with Tony, Peter’s discovery and that he was the one who had to bring the crime spree to the team’s attention.

“I’m more than happy to have Peter on the team. And I’m relieved he caught wind that something was up. But am I overreacting if it’s stressing me out that the rest of us didn’t see what was going on?”

“Maybe that’s the point?”

“What do you mean?" Natasha asked.

“The entire world knows what you’ve lost. It wouldn’t be so absurd to think you may currently be occupied, either with practical matters or distracted by your own grief.”

“Are you trying to say we’re compromised?”

“No, but your enemies may think you are and are trying to take advantage.”

She needed to take the advice she just gave to Peter to heart. It was okay to take a step back and regroup - and in their case, it may be necessary.

The truth was that they _were_ compromised. Grief, stress, exhaustion, and sadness had all worn them down, made things blurry, clouded their judgment, scattered them around and made them lose focus.

Even though Thanos had been defeated, the world was still in danger.

They still had a job to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for such a delay!
> 
> The last chapter for this story and the first chapter for part three (where this story and The Company We Keep, the first in this series converge) will be posted at the same time.
> 
> UPDATE (4/28/19): sorry for the delay! Work & personal issues have made little time to write and edit. And now that we’re post endgame, I’m gonna need a few days to process it all. Will post the last chapter and continue soon!
> 
> I'm also at muchmoremajestic on tumblr.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second story of a series. Essentially, the third part of this series will pick up where The Company We Keep and this story leave off. There won't be as many chapters as the first story but they should be longer chapters like this one.
> 
> I'm also muchmoremajestic on Tumblr.


End file.
